Benchmarks trade with minor cuts; European mrkt advance

The key equity indices traded with minor losses in afternoon trade. The Nifty traded below the 25,850 mark. Investor sentiment remained subdued amid persistent foreign institutional investor (FII) selling while mixed signals from US jobs data kept uncertainty around the Federal Reserve's interest-rate outlook. Market participants also continued to keep an eye on ongoing IPO activity.

PSU Bank, IT and oil & gas shares advanced while media, realty and private bank shares declined.

At 13:25 ST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, declined 148.87 points or 0.18% to 84,530. The Nifty 50 index fell 48.20 points or 0.18% to 25,816.35.

In the broader market underperformed the frontline indices. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index declined 0.45% and the S&P BSE Small-Cap index fell 0.70%.

The market breadth was weak. On the BSE, 1,419 shares rose and 2,551 shares fell. A total of 218 shares were unchanged.

Gainers & Losers:

State Bank of India (up 1.43%), Eicher Motors (up 1.30%), Shriram Finance (up 1.14%), Tata Consumer Products (up 1.09%) and Hindalco Industries (up 1.08%) were the major Nifty50 gainers.

Max Healthcare (down 3.88%), SBI Life Insurance Company (down 1.80%), HDF Life Insurance Company (down 1.60%), Apollo Hospital Enterprises (down 1.44%) and Trent (down 1.38%) were the major Nifty50 losers.

Shriram Finance advanced 1.14% after the companys board will meet on Friday, 19 December 2025.to consider raising funds by way of equity shares or any other eligible securities through various modes.

IPO Update:

KSH International received bids for 30,94,143 shares as against 1,36,16,438 shares on offer, according to stock exchange data at 13:18 IST on Wednesday (17 December 2025). The issue was subscribed 0.23 times. The issue opened for bidding on 16 December 2025 and it will close on 18 December 2025. The price band of the IPO is fixed between Rs 365 and 384 per share.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Lupin rose 0.83%. The company said that it has received the establishment inspection report (EIR) from the United States Food and Drug Administration (US FDA) for its injectable facility in Nagpur, India, with a voluntary action indicated (VAI) classification.

Refex Industries declined 8.43%. The company has bagged an order worth approximately Rs 27.50 crore from a major power producer (PSU) for the transportation of pond ash to NHAI road projects.

Ahluwalia Contracts (India) jumped 2.05% after the company received an order from Bihar State Tourism Development Corporation (BSTDC) for civil construction work on EPC Mode at Punauradham, Sitamarhi, Bihar. The order is valued at Rs 888.38 crore and is scheduled to be completed within 42 months.

Apeejay Surrendra Park Hotels rose 0.76%. The company said that it has signed an agreement to purchase new hotel assets in Kerala, which include a lakefront property named 'Purity' and a luxury houseboat named 'Discovery'.

RailTel Corporation of India fell 1.63%. The company received a letter of acceptance (LoA) worth Rs 26.88 crore from V.O. Chidambaranar Port Authority for implementation of advanced IT infrastructure at VOC Port.

Global Markets:

European market advanced as investors will keep an eye on the European Central Banks final policy meeting of the year on Thursday.

The U.K.s inflation rate cooled sharply to 3.2% in November, boosting the chances of the Bank of England cutting interest rates at its final meeting of the year on Thursday.

Core inflation, excluding energy, food, alcohol, and tobacco, also rose by 3.2% in the year to November, down from 3.4% in October, according to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics.

Most Asian markets advanced on Wednesday as investors parsed trade data that came out of Japan.

Japans exports in November grew 6.1% year on year, data from the countrys finance ministry released Wednesday showed. The growth was higher than the 3.6% rise seen in the previous month.

Oil prices climbed after U.S. President Donald Trump reportedly announced on social media platform that he will be ordering a total and complete blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela.

Overnight in the U.S., the S&P 500 fell for a third session as traders digested the delayed release of the November jobs report.

The broad market index dropped 0.24% to settle at 6,800.26, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.23% to end at 23,111.46. The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 302.30 points, or 0.62%, to close at 48,114.26.

Nonfarm payrolls grew slightly more than expected in November but slumped in October while unemployment hit its highest in four years, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Tuesday in numbers delayed by the government shutdown.

Job growth totaled a seasonally adjusted 64,000 for the month, better than a widely reported estimate of 45,000 and up from a sharp decline in October.

The unemployment rate rose to 4.6%, its highest level since September 2021. A more encompassing measure that includes discouraged workers and those holding part-time jobs for economic reasons swelled to 8.7%, its peak going back to August 2021.

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